Charles Dickens was a titan in English literature who penned 15 novels, 5 novellas and an array of short stories and essays.
Not just a write, he was also a mentor promoting other novelists and confronting social issues in his weekly journals.
His mastery shone in character creation and London settings, introducing unforgettable figures like Scrooge and Uriah Heep.
Born on 7 February 1812 in Portsmouth, his love for literature was nurtured early, despite a challenging childhood.
Experiences with poverty and his father’s imprisonment for debt greatly influenced his later works.
His writing career catapulted with “The Pickwick Papers” in 1836, followed by classics like “David Copperfield” and “Great Expectations.”
An ardent theatre lover, Dickens toured America twice, lecturing and performing his works.
Related: William Penn Quotes from the English Writer and Mary Wollstonecraft Quotes from the English Writer
His enduring legacy persists, even with his final novel, “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” left unfinished at his death in 1870.
I have made a compilation of the great quotes from Charles Dickens.
Best Charles Dickens Quotes
It is a melancholy truth that even great men have their poor relations. ~ Charles Dickens.
Make them laugh, make them cry, make them wait. ~ Charles Dickens.
Change begets change. Nothing propagates so fast. ~ Charles Dickens.
To a young heart everything is fun. ~ Charles Dickens.
There is a wisdom of the head and wisdom of the heart. ~ Charles Dickens.
Do all the good you can and make as little fuss about it as possible. ~ Charles Dickens.
People like us don’t go out at night cause people like them see us for what we are. ~ Charles Dickens.
You have been the last dream of my soul. ~ Charles Dickens.
He did each single thing as if he did nothing else. ~ Charles Dickens.
Once a gentleman, and always a gentleman. ~ Charles Dickens.
I have been, as the phrase is, liberally educated, and am fit for nothing. ~ Charles Dickens.
We never tire of the friendships we form with books. ~ Charles Dickens.
There are talkers enough among us; I’ll be one of the doers. ~ Charles Dickens.
Christmas is a poor excuse every 25th of December to pick a man’s pockets. ~ Charles Dickens.
Great men are seldom over-scrupulous in the arrangement of their attire. ~ Charles Dickens.
I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a better shape. ~ Charles Dickens.
There is a passion for hunting something deeply implanted in the human breast. ~ Charles Dickens.
Trifles make the sum of life. ~ Charles Dickens.
I stole her heart away and put ice in its place. ~ Charles Dickens.
Family not only need to consist of merely those whom we share blood, but also for those whom we’d give blood. ~ Charles Dickens.
Famous Charles Dickens Quotes
The most important thing in life is to stop saying ‘I wish’ and start saying ‘I will.’ Consider nothing impossible, then treat possibilities as probabilities. ~ Charles Dickens.
Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death; – the last, much the easiest to bestow, O Guillotine! ~ Charles Dickens.
It is the last straw that breaks the camel’s back. ~ Charles Dickens.
There are strings in the human heart that had better not be vibrated. ~ Charles Dickens.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. ~ Charles Dickens.
My advice is to never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time. ~ Charles Dickens.
It is because I think so much of warm and sensitive hearts, that I would spare them from being wounded. ~ Charles Dickens.
Try to do unto others as you would have them do to you, and do not be discouraged if they fail sometimes. It is much better that they should fail than you should. ~ Charles Dickens.
Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts. ~ Charles Dickens.
A dream, all a dream, that ends in nothing, and leaves the sleeper where he lay down, but I wish you to know that you inspired it. ~ Charles Dickens.
Spring is the time of year when it is summer in the sun and winter in the shade. ~ Charles Dickens.
Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers, and are famous preservers of good looks. ~ Charles Dickens.
We need never be ashamed of our tears. ~ Charles Dickens.
There are chords in the human heart- strange, varying strings- which are only struck by accident; which will remain mute and senseless to appeals the most passionate and earnest, and respond at last to the slightest casual touch. ~ Charles Dickens.
Top Charles Dickens Quotes
Subdue your appetites, my dears, and you’ve conquered human nature . ~ Charles Dickens.
My dear young lady, crime, like death, is not confined to the old and withered alone. The youngest and fairest are too often its chosen victims. ~ Charles Dickens.
The sun himself is weak when he first rises, and gathers strength and courage as the day gets on. ~ Charles Dickens.
Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home! ~ Charles Dickens.
Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own. ~ Charles Dickens.
The law is an ass, an idiot. ~ Charles Dickens.
There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast. ~ Charles Dickens.
Credit is a system whereby a person who can not pay gets another person who can not pay to guarantee that he can pay. ~ Charles Dickens.
Ask no questions and you’ll be told no lies. ~ Charles Dickens.
A very little key will open a very heavy door. ~ Charles Dickens.
Home is like the ship at sea, Sailing on eternally; Oft the anchor forth we cast, But can never make it fast. ~ Charles Dickens.
For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself. ~ Charles Dickens.
Industry is the soul of business and the keystone of prosperity. ~ Charles Dickens.
Every traveler has a home of his own, and he learns to appreciate it the more from his wandering. ~ Charles Dickens.
Death is a mighty, universal truth. ~ Charles Dickens.
I only ask for information. ~ Charles Dickens.
The coffee was boiling over a charcoal fire, and large slices of bread and butter were piled one upon the other like deals in a lumber yard. ~ Charles Dickens.
The beating of my heart was so violent and wild that I felt as if my life were breaking from me. ~ Charles Dickens.
Cleanliness is next to Godliness, and some people do the same by their religion. ~ Charles Dickens.
Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true. ~ Charles Dickens.
An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself. ~ Charles Dickens.
Is it better to have had a good thing and lost it, or never to have had it? ~ Charles Dickens.
A word in earnest is as good as a speech. ~ Charles Dickens.
Popular Charles Dickens Quotes
It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. ~ Charles Dickens.
No one who can read, ever looks at a book, even unopened on a shelf, like one who cannot. ~ Charles Dickens.
One always begins to forgive a place as soon as it’s left behind. ~ Charles Dickens.
There is prodigious strength in sorrow and despair. ~ Charles Dickens.
There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor. ~ Charles Dickens.
No space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused. ~ Charles Dickens.
It is an old prerogative of kings to govern everything but their passions. ~ Charles Dickens.
A new heart for a New Year, always! ~ Charles Dickens.
Little Red Riding Hood was my first love. I felt that if I could have married Little Red Riding Hood, I should have known perfect bliss. ~ Charles Dickens.
Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before – more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle. ~ Charles Dickens.
I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. ~ Charles Dickens.
Never close your lips to those whom you have already opened your heart. ~ Charles Dickens.
And can it be that in a world so full and busy the loss of one creature makes a void so wide and deep that nothing but the width and depth of eternity can fill it up! ~ Charles Dickens.
I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time. ~ Charles Dickens.
Family not only needs to consist of merely those whom we share blood, but also of those whom we’d give blood. ~ Charles Dickens.
Consider nothing impossible, then treat possibilities as probabilities. ~ Charles Dickens.
We forge the chains we wear in life. ~ Charles Dickens.
No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another. ~ Charles Dickens.
I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!. ~ Charles Dickens.
Ask no questions, and you’ll be told no lies. ~ Charles Dickens.
Great Charles Dickens Quotes
A smattering of everything, and a knowledge of nothing. ~ Charles Dickens.
A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. ~ Charles Dickens.
God bless us, every one! ~ Charles Dickens.
Love is in all things a most wonderful teacher. ~ Charles Dickens.
The sum of the whole is this: walk and be happy; walk and be healthy. The best way to lengthen out our days is to walk steadily and with a purpose. ~ Charles Dickens.
The year end brings no greater pleasure then the opportunity to express to you season’s greetings and good wishes. May your holidays and new year be filled with joy. ~ Charles Dickens.
Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. ~ Charles Dickens.
A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to the world! ~ Charles Dickens.
I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be. ~ Charles Dickens.
I was a blacksmith’s boy but yesterday; I am – what shall I say I am today? ~ Charles Dickens.
It is no small thing, when they, who are so fresh from God, love us. ~ Charles Dickens.
Happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes. ~ Charles Dickens.
There is a wisdom of the head, and a wisdom of the heart. ~ Charles Dickens.
Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a better shape. ~ Charles Dickens.
And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One! ~ Charles Dickens.
Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him. ~ Charles Dickens.
And I am bored to death with it. Bored to death with this place, bored to death with my life, bored to death with myself. ~ Charles Dickens.
The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again. ~ Charles Dickens.
Powerful Charles Dickens Quotes
The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists. ~ Charles Dickens.
Walk and be Happy, Walk and be Healthy… ~ Charles Dickens.
Reflect upon your present blessings – of which every man has many – not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. ~ Charles Dickens.
A loving heart is the truest wisdom. ~ Charles Dickens.
I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free. ~ Charles Dickens.
If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers. ~ Charles Dickens.
For not an orphan in the wide world can be so deserted as the child who is an outcast from a living parent’s love. ~ Charles Dickens.
It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known. ~ Charles Dickens.
A day wasted on others is not wasted on one’s self. ~ Charles Dickens.
Love her, love her, love her! If she favours you, love her. If she wounds you, love her. If she tears your heart to pieces – and as it gets older and stronger, it will tear deeper – love her, love her, love her! ~ Charles Dickens.
New thoughts and hopes were whirling through my mind, and all the colours of my life were changing. ~ Charles Dickens.
A man is lucky if he is the first love of a woman. A woman is lucky if she is the last love of a man. ~ Charles Dickens.
Least said, soonest mended. ~ Charles Dickens.
Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule. ~ Charles Dickens.
I had no advice, no counsel, no encouragement, no consolation, no assistance, no support, of any kind, from anyone, that I can call to mind, as I hope to go to heaven! ~ Charles Dickens.
It is a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home. ~ Charles Dickens.
It’s in vain to recall the past, unless it works some influence upon the present. ~ Charles Dickens.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. ~ Charles Dickens.
There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts. ~ Charles Dickens.
So these were the 117 top Charles Dickens quotes and sayings.
If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on Carol Burnett quotes and C. S. Lewis quotes.
